Transitioning, engagements, dancing....

Hey all!

After some moving around in my first week here, I think I am finally settled in with a host family. I am living in Beit Jala, right next to downtown Bethlehem. It is up on a hill next to Bethlehem, so it's nice and breezy. The family I'm living with has three daughters and one son, ages ranging from around 25 to 12 (the son is the youngest). The parents own a clothing store in Beit Jala; they have a permit to travel to Tel Aviv twice a month to get clothes there to sell here. I just met them and moved in yesterday, so I'll update again soon and let you know if we're getting along :)

I have also been getting settled with Holy Land Trust. Things are REALLY busy for them right now because it is the height of their international volunteer time... many volunteers from all over the world come during the summer to work on different projects and learn more about Palestine. It's been fun to meet some of these volunteers and learn about their respective research projects for HLT. Most of them will be gone by September so things will be much quieter after that. For now, it looks like I will be working on a research project concerning the local evangelical Christian community in Palestine, with Bethlehem as a case study. HLT wants this research to present at their upcoming Christ at the Checkpoint conference. We are beginning interviewing next week and then the form and shape of the project will probably become clearer.

Last night, around two hours after I met my host family, they took me with them to a family engagement party. However, it should have been called an engagement party-rave-extravaganza-ridiculous event, because it was huge and extravagant. They have a huge family, and some friends were there too, so it was a big deal. I loved being able to see such a fun, important family event. A couple comments that someone made to me at the beginning of the evening that hinted at what the party would be like included: "I hope you're a drinker" and "Yeah, maybe it will end at 1 am? Maybe." We arrived around 6:30 pm and went through the receiving line of immediate family at the door. It was at a big open restaurant/reception place, and there were a bunch of tables set up inside. After about an hour of waiting, the engaged couple arrived and everyone went crazy! Then, things calmed down for them to do some traditional necessities, like the groom giving the bride gold, feeding each other cake, drinking champaigne, dancing, etc. This was to BEGIN the party. And then, there was another receiving line, now including the engaged couple. Afterwards, they started bringing out food (which didn't stop for the whole evening, by the way) and the music and dancing started. Oh, and I danced a few times! It was fun. A few times I danced with my parents and sisters, and one time this guy Haanna asked me to dance. I wasn't too worried about making a fool out of myself because a friend told me, "all you have to do is shake your butt" haha, so it was fine. Actually, there seemed to be a standard type of dancing that I tried to imitate. The men hold out their arms facing the woman they're dancing with, and the women holds her arms up in different ways (I'm not really describing this very well). The way the women do their hands reminded me of traditional Indonesian dance. It's almost like your hands dance more than the rest of your body. Anywho, I think I did ok. A lot of people watching were probably wondering what the white American girl was doing there, shaking her butt on the dance floor.

The night went on and on, with the drinks flowing and the food always increasing. Many of the songs the band played were really popular with the crowd, so at different times there were huge groups of people dancing and singing along. Oh, and the clothes. My mom is totally going to pull a "I told you so" here, but I'm really glad I brought a dress. It's a simple black dress, but it's nice by my standards. Well, I looked like a peasant girl compared to the people there. Most of the women had their hair done and were wearing prom-like dresses. I literally did not see any other woman without heels, and jewelry was a must. Everyone looked great.

Oh, and one of the funniest moments for me was when the groom announced that it was someone's birthday and they brought out a cake with fire-exploding candles and played an english song that was kind of a disco version of "happy birthday." It was awesome!

Ok, that's enough for now. You can tell the party made an impression on me. I was so glad to be able to go, and apparently the family has at least a few more weddings (which will be even bigger) and engagement parties coming up! Soon, I will tell you about how I have already witnessed the apartheid conditions of the Israeli wall, the difficulty of living under occupation, etc. But for now, I hope you enjoyed this update :)

Til next time.